Recruiting Calendar

2017-18 NCAA Recruiting Calendar and Recruiting Guide

The NCAA Recruiting Calendars outline when—and how—NCAA DI and DII college coaches can proactively start recruiting athletes. With the recruiting process starting earlier and earlier, however, the dates don’t represent when recruiting really starts for student-athletes. In fact, most athletes start their recruiting process well before the dates outlined on the calendar. As early as eighth grade, families are researching colleges, evaluating what division level is best for their athlete, ensuring they are on the path to NCAA eligibility and even proactively reaching out to college coaches.

However, it’s still important to know the different periods in the NCAA Recruiting Calendar to understand how you should be getting recruited at that point during the year, as well as the kind of communication you can expect to receive from a coach. For example, if it’s October of your junior year in high school and you haven’t heard from a single coach, you have some work to do. If it’s October of your sophomore year of high school, you shouldn’t expect to hear from coaches, but you probably should be making progress on your recruiting journey.

Overall, the NCAA Recruiting Calendars seek to protect elite athletes from receiving overwhelming amounts of communication from college coaches by designating certain time periods when coaches cannot contact athletes. The NCAA explains, “Recruiting calendars help promote the well-being of prospective student-athletes and coaches and ensure competitive equity by defining certain time periods in which recruiting may or may not occur in a particular sport.”

Insider Tip: No matter the time or date, you as a student-athlete can always initiate contact with a coach. The rules only enforce when coaches can initiate contact with you. To get the process started, some recruits rely on their high school/club coaches to reach out to college coaches for them. The high school/club coach can set up a time a for the recruit to call the college coach, and the college coach can answer the phone if a recruit calls them. The rules only prohibit college coaches from calling a recruit back, emailing, direct messaging or responding to recruits. Some athletes will also go through their current coach to set up an unofficial visit to a college campus and connect with the coach that way.

How to use the NCAA Recruiting Calendars

Use the recruiting calendar alongside the NCAA Recruiting Rules. The NCAA Recruiting Rules mandate the types of communication athletes can receive from college coaches based on the athlete’s year in high school. The NCAA Recruiting Calendars show the specific recruiting time periods throughout the year when coaches can contact athletes—and when coaches aren’t allowed to contact athletes.

Generally speaking, the most important dates on the calendar will be June 15 or September 1 (depending on your sport), going into the athlete’s junior year of high school. For most sports, this is when coaches can start reaching out to recruits. For more specific dates, find your sport-specific calendar below.

Key terms in the NCAA Recruiting Calendars

To better understand the NCAA Recruiting Calendars, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the following terms:

As you look through the NCAA Recruiting Calendar for your sport, keep an eye out for some of the particular days that stand out within each period. For example, you may have a quiet period from September 1 through November 25, but within that time span, there will be a designated number of evaluation days in which coaches can assess either your athletic or academic qualifications in person.

What is the NCAA recruiting guide?

The NCAA recruiting guide is a booklet of information distributed each year by the NCAA to help student-athletes, families, high school coaches and administrators understand the initial eligibility process for Division I and Division II schools. The guide provides resources, such as:

Time management expectations for Division I athletes

An initial eligibility checklist

How to register for a Certification Account – and who needs one

Division I and Division II academic standards

Division III academic information

Division I and Division II initial eligibility worksheets

Required courses and test scores

An explanation of recruiting rules specifically for home school students and international students

We recommend reviewing this information with your family and guidance counselor to ensure that you are checking off all the boxes to be academically eligible to compete in your sport at the next level. The 2017-2018 NCAA Recruiting Guide contains the eligibility information for both Division I and Division II schools.

Division I Rowing dead periods

November 6-9, 2017 (Monday through Thursday of the initial week for the fall signing of the National Letter of Intent).

April 9-12, 2018 (Monday through Thursday of the initial week for the spring signing of the National Letter of Intent).

Division II Rowing dead periods

7 a.m. on November 6 to 7 a.m. on November 8, 2017 (during the 48 hours prior to 7 a.m. on the initial date for the fall signing of the National Letter of Intent)

7 a.m. on April 9 to 7 a.m. on April 11, 2018 (during the 48 hours prior to 7 a.m. on the initial date for the spring signing of the National Letter of Intent)